
Ohio-based entrepreneur Jeffrey L. Wendel serves as the CEO of Wendel Retirement Planning in Fort Recovery. In this capacity, he meets with prospects and discusses their retirement needs. Jeffrey L. Wendel also wrote Grand Slam Retirement, and regularly teaches educational classes about taxes and required minimum distributions (RMDs) at local universities.
The IRS dictates that people must take RMDs from most tax-advantaged retirement accounts every year starting from the age of 72. Failure to do so results in a penalty of 50 percent on the amount that was not taken out. For instance, a person who has an RMD of $40,000 would be subject to a penalty of $10,000 if they only took out $20,000 from their retirement account during a particular year.
RMDs are generally taxed the same as ordinary income or distribution from a retirement account. They cannot be rolled over to a different retirement account in order to avoid paying taxes on them. Once the amount is taken from the account, the recipient must pay taxes on it.
However, it’s important that individuals understand the rules about which accounts they can take RMDs from. While these distributions are required of both traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, people can add up the total amount of RMDs required of all IRA accounts and take that amount from a single account. With 401(k) accounts, on the other hand, the necessary RMD must be taken from each account separately.
It’s also important to know that many Roth IRAs do not have RMDs. Distributions from these accounts are also generally tax-free, as long as a person is qualified to take distributions. Otherwise, the earnings withdrawn from an Roth IRA are taxable, while that person’s contributions are not.

